Community sports clubs, social enterprises and other providers are facing strong challenges in order to survive and grow in an increasingly competitive and demanding market. How to attract new members and users and retain the existing ones, become a hub of the community, grow sponsorship revenue, improve the social life of the club, increase media coverage, benefit from new technology and introduce new revenue streams…are all pressing concerns.

Life is changing and providers and bodies within community sport have to change with it.

So how do we deliver great, sustainable community sport without compromising your sporting and community objectives? How do we provide great customer experiences and grow participation whilst at the same time meeting the strategic objectives of external partners and funders, whether they are from within sport or from health, regeneration or community services? How do we engage the local community and promote community leadership and play our part of the fabric of our local communities? How do we develop and deliver an innovative range of sporting opportunities, attracting people of all ages and abilities?

This is putting increasing pressure on Scotland’s Governing Bodies of Sport (SGBs) to innovate, adapt, become more enterprising and then they can improve the way they operate, do their marketing and grow their income.

Sports Marketing Network has been commissioned by sportscotland and the Scottish Sports Association to deliver a programme designed to provide thoughts, tools and to-dos for SGBs to become more vibrant, visible and viable.

The programme comprises three strands and each strand includes:

5 hour interactive workshop

Tools and templates to be used in follow-up

3 months online/telephone remote mentoring/support

The workshops run from 10.00am – 5.00pm and are being held at sportscotland’s offices at Caledonia House, Edinburgh.

The three strands are:

13th May – Developing an innovative and enterprising SGB

How SGBs can benefit themselves, their partners, clubs and their communities by developing and delivering innovative and enterprising programmes.

How do SGBs deliver great, sustainable community sport without compromising your sporting and community objectives? How do we provide great customer experiences and grow participation whilst at the same time meeting the strategic objectives of external partners and funders, whether they are from within sport or from health, regeneration or community services? How do we engage the local community and promote community leadership and play our part of the fabric of our local communities? How do we develop and deliver an innovative range of sporting opportunities, attracting people of all ages and abilities?

17th June – How to market your SBG better in a connected world

This workshop covers how to use social and mobile media to communicate with members, sponsors and supporters. Participants will be introduced to SMN’s unique tool 4COM: Linking up COMmunity, COMmunication, welCOMing and COMputerswhich enables them to connect all their promotional activities. They will learn how to develop Partnership Promotions with external non-sport partners from the Police to Housing Associations.

SGBs who attend this workshop will understand how a higher profile will help them to attract more members, volunteers, supporters and sponsors – and also how they can attract more support for their various events and projects by telling the world about the good work they do.

19th August – Growing your SGB’s sustainable income through sponsorship and other revenue streams

SGBs need to balance their objectives with the different ways of financing them and your SGB as a whole. You also need to go from a mentality of asking/begging for money to earning your income – from un-sustainable fund-raising to sustainable income generation.

‘Sustainable income’ is not simply a question of getting better at fundraising or locating one ever-lasting source of income.

Sustainable income is about exploring income opportunities across a spectrum of funding streams; from charitable donations, through to grants, service level agreements and contracts, sponsorship, to social enterprise activity, trading goods and services. This not only spreads risk, but ensures that your SGB is best placed to take advantage of emerging trends and opportunities and are able to safeguard your financial future.